Oil explorer Tullow announces fresh discovery at Kenyan well
TULLOW Oil confirmed yesterday that its Twiga South-1 well in Kenya had discovered oil, raising prospects that the region holds a significant reservoir.
The British explorer said it had found 30 metres of net oil pay at the well, its second at the Lokichar Basin, onshore Kenya. The oil was of a similar quality to that found at the first Ngamia well about 22km away, it said. Tullow found 100m in more shallow sections at Ngamia, which was drilled closer to the basin fault.
“This immediate follow on discovery reaffirms the considerable prospectivity of the Lokichar Basin,” said exploration director Angus McCoss in a statement.
Tullow said it had also found about 800m of gross oil pay deeper in the rock, a potential new play that would need further evaluation to understand how large it was and whether it was productive. The commercial viability of the Lokichar finds is yet to be ascertained, but hopes are rising that Kenya could become a petroleum producer and exporter.
The 30 metres discovered at Twiga-1 was in-line with pre-drill estimates, said broker Morgan Stanley.
“The well results to date reaffirm the basin’s multi-billion barrel size and support our belief of the region’s transformational potential,” Morgan Stanley said.